Waved flat plate coil or washer



March 4, 1969 MASAHARU KUBOKAWA 3,430,672

WAVED FLAT PLATE COIL OR WASHER Filed July 14, 1965 INVENTOR Masa haru K bokawa ATTORNEY March 4, 1969 MASAHARU KUBOKAWA 3,430,672

WAVED FLAT PLATE COIL 0R WASHER Filed July 14, 1925 Sheet 3 of 2 INVENTOR bsaharu K bokawa BY l mum y ATTORNEY United States Patent 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A wavy detent washer comprising a substantially annular ring having adjacent cut ends. The annular ring has a circular outer edge portion disposed in a single plane, and the annular ring is formed with approximately five Waves at the inner edge portion running substantially continuously around the entire inner edge portion and perpendicularly to the single plane, and the waves having a height about .5 to 2 times the thickness of the plate and substantially smaller than the length of the waves.

This invention relates to flat coils, wavy fiat coils or wavy detent washers. It is one object of the present invention to provide an excellent detent washer that can be easily used and positively operated.

With these and other objects in view which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the apparatus as a flat plate coil being formed;

FIGv 4 is a front view of the apparatus of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the essential parts of the apparatus as a wavy flat coil being formed;

FIGS. 6I, II, III and IV are perspective views of various kinds of flat coils produced in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 6V is a front view of one of the coils as shown in I, II, III, and IV of FIG. 6;

FIG. 7 shows several views of wavy detent washers similarly produced in accordance with the present invention, wherein I is a plan view of a wavy detent washer, II is a front view of the washer as shown in I, III is a perspective view of a continuously coiled form from which individual wavy detent washers, as shown in I and II, are cut apart, IV shows further perspective views of differently formed wavy detent washers other than shown in III; and

FIGS. 81, III and V are plan views of conventional detent washers, while II, IV and VI are front views of the respective washers as shown in I, III and V.

Hitherto, in case of producing fiat coils or the like, it has been a practice that a flat coil material of belt style is wound around a scroll shaft with care being taken to prevent transformation such as crooks of the fiat coil material by pressing the top and side faces of the material with rollers. In the production of such coils, there have been frequent occurrences of damages due to cracks in the top and side faces of the produced flat coils. Moreover, since the winding operation of such coils depends mostly on tact, it has been difiicult to obtain uniform flat coils even with a skilled operator.

It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above-mentioned disadvantages, by providing flat coils wherein an extract gap is formed by cutting away a portion of an insert hole through a main body having a fitted hole and opposed to a formative object provided with a guide wall, thereon across a guide groove. A scroll shaft is inserted through the fitted hole and also through the insert hole. A fiat coil material of belt style is inserted through the guide groove and is bent along the outer periphery of the scroll shaft, and the leading end of the coil material is extracted out from the guide groove by traversing the extract gap of the insert hole and is rotated together with the scroll shaft, whereby the coil material is passed between the guide wall and the outer periphery of the scroll shaft.

Further, a guide plate having an extract gap formed by cutting away a portion of an insert hole and a reinforcement plate having a guide wall formed by perforating a bore with a partly cut away portion thereof and having a radius larger than that of a fitted hole in a main body by the width of a coil material are set over against the main body with the interposition of a linear plate to form a guide groove between the main body and the guide plate, and these plates are securably connected to the main body by means of bolts with the centers of the fitted hole, the insert hole and the bore in alignment, so as to be able to insert a scroll shaft therethrough.

Referring now to the drawings, an embodiment of the present invention will be explained in detail. A main body 1 is provided, and a scroll shaft 3 is inserted through a fitted hole 2 perforated in the main body 1. A guide plate 4 is provided, and an insert hole 6 is perforated in the upper region of the guide plate 4 with an extract gap 5 formed by cutting away a portion of the insert hole 6. A reinforcement plate 7 is provided, and a bore 9 having a diameter larger than the diameter D of the scroll shaft 3 by twice the width a of a coil material 8 is perforated to form a guide wall 10 and an upper portion of the bore 9 is partly cut away. The reinforcement plate 7 and the guide plate 4 constitute a formative object.

A linear plate 11 is provided which has the same thickness as the thickness b of the coil material 8, and this linear plate 11 forms a guide groove when it is interposed between the main body 1 and the guide plate 4. Bolts 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 'and 18 are provided which secure the linear plate 11, the guide plate 4, and the reinforcement plate 7 together with the main body 1. A bearing 19 is attached to the fitted hole 2, and in the interior of the bearing 19, various kinds of bushes having their inside diameter to fit with the outer diameter D of the scroll shaft 3 are restrained by means of stop rings and are adapted to be secured by screws 20. A sliding body 21 is in contact with a movable shaft 22 positioned in parallel with the scroll shaft 3 and serves to shift the main body 1 in its definite stable state along the scroll shaft 3. A handle 23 is attached to the sliding body 21, and a bending piece 24 is rotatably or fixedly connected to the main body 1 with a suitable space to permit the coil material 8 to pass therethrough, so that the leading end of the material 8 can be easily bent and chucked to a lathe or other machine tool.

To form the fiat coils, first the scroll shaft 3 which is rotatably mounted on a lathe or other machine tool, is inserted through the bore 9 of the reinforcement plate 7 and also through the insert hole 6 and the fitted hole 2, and the apparatus is installed by attaching the bearing 19 to the scroll shaft 3. Then the coil material 8 is inserted into the guide groove 12 from the left side in FIG. 1, and the leading end of the material 8 is passed under the scroll shaft 3 and is curved along the right periphery of the scroll shaft 3. The leading end of the coil material 8 is then bent by the bending piece 24 in the axial direction of the scroll shaft 3 to the side of a rotating body of a lathe or other machine tool, and

further by traversing the material across the extract gap 5 of the guide plate 4, the coil material 8 is brought out of the guide groove 12. Then the leading end of the coil material 8 is fixed to a chuck of the lathe, and when it is turned counter-clockwise together with the scroll shaft 3 as shown in FIG. 4, the coil material 8 curves along the periphery of the scroll shaft 3 out of the guide groove 12 to the direction of width across the extract gap 5 and is guided to pass into a path between the guide wall and the periphery of the scroll shaft 3, whereby the coil material 8 is formed into a perfect circular form. In this case, since the flat coils are continuously formed and wound around the scroll shaft 3, the whole apparatus including the main body 1 moves backwardly sliding on the scroll shaft 3.

The flat coils produced by the above-mentioned process may be made even flat coils modified in a constant back measure by once reversely turning the scroll shaft 3, and after they are suitably treated, such products as snap rings can be obtained.

Further, as occasion demands, various kinds of fiat coils or wavy fiat coils may be produced by changing the dimensional relation of the difference C between the two radii of the insert hole 6 and the bore 9 in the respective plates 4 and 7, or by changing the gap d of the guide groove 12, and also by changing the rotational speed of the scroll shaft 3. That is to say, in case of producing ordinary fiat coils, the difference C between the two radii of the insert hole 6 and the bore 9 forming the guide wall 10 may be of the same size as the width a of the coil material 8, and also the gap 0. of the guide groove 12 may be nearly of the same size as the thickness b of the coil material 8. On the other hand, in case of producing wavy fiat coils, the diiference C between the two radii of the insert hole 6 and the guide wall 10 may be made somewhat smaller than the width a of the coil material 8, and a suitable gap may be provided between the insert hole 6 and the scroll shaft 3, and at the same time, by adjusting the clamping bolts 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, the gap d of the guide groove 12 near the insert hole 6 may be made somewhat larger than the thickness b of the coil material 8. In this instance, when the coil material 8 is turned clockwise together with the scroll shaft 3 as shown in FIG. 5, the compressive force acting on the inner periphery of the coil material 8 and the tensile force acting on the outer periphery of the material will cause the coil material 8 to be dented with waves due to the loose fit of the inner periphery of the material 8 with the scroll shaft 3, and hence by adjusting the clamping bolts 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, wavy flat coils having a desired number of crests as to 3, 4, 5 or 6 may be obtained. And also, suitably adjusting these adjusting means, non-Wavy flat coils having protrusions to one side along the inner periphery thereof may be easily obtained. Further, even with a given and same adjustment of these adjusting means, by changing the rotational speed of the scroll shaft 3 or the tractional speed of the coil material 8, various kinds of wavy flat coils having a different number of waves can be necessarily produced.

Although varieties of fiat coils can be produced as described above, since all the forces of the tractive force, the tensile force and the compressive force acting on the coil material 8 are always given constant mechanically, it is possible even for an unskilled operator to produce always uniformly shaped coils of every kind, and thus the mass production of such coils can be attained. In addition, it is one of the advantages of the invention that only by association with an ordinary lathe, the apparatus can be operated as a coiling machine.

Then, the obtained flat coils may be further treated with a suitable process to produce spring washers or snap rings. The strength of such products will be extremely high, because they are devoid of grains such as occur with steel punched products.

The Wavy flat coils produced by the above-mentioned method may be suitably cut apart to make wavy detent washers.

Conventional detent washers hitherto used for preventing nuts from becoming loose in securing machine parts are shown in FIG. 8. A Washer having waves spread over its whole length as shown in I and II of FIG. 8 is formed by punching a steel plate, and as the waves spread over its whole length is made monotonous, there is a defect that the resiliency of the washer when clamped by a nut is rather weak. Another Washer as shown in III and IV of FIG. 8 has such construction that is adapted to press against both the nut and the machine part to be secured, and as it is apt to injure the machine part, there is a defect that it should be associated with another flat washer. Further, in such a toothed washer as shown in V and VI of FIG. 8, there is a defect that its manufacturing process is rather complicated.

The above-mentioned defects of conventional detent Washers are perfectly eliminated in the washers produced in accordance with the present invention. Referring now again to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 7, the present wavy detent washer is characterized in that the inside periphery 2 of an annular ring 1 is undulated in a wavy form. The outside 4 is formed circular and fiat without any jogs, and the washer is cut from its original coil to form ends 5 such as shown in IV of FIG. 7. The cut ends 5 of the washer may be formed in a step style (in a state that a lead of the original coil is remained as it is) or may be reformed to :be flatly leveled by a subsequent treatment.

In the constituted wavy detent washer having a suitable numberapproximately fiveof Waves 3 formed thereon, when interposed between a nut and a machine part to be secured, the Washer will contact with these elements through the medium of a number of tops of the waves 3 and thereby can transmit a uniform repulsive force to the nut and the machine part to be secured. The height of the waves is substantially smaller than the length of the waves and not more than about twice the thickness of the plate. Further, in the present washer, as the waves 3 are formed only in the inside periphery 2 and the outside 4 is made flat, and since many different compressive stresses (vertical stresses) having various values of strength with different directions of force act on each portion of the washer, the resultant resiliency is extremely strong, whereas to the contrary in a conventional detent washer having waves spread over its whole length such as shown in FIG. 8, the entire length of the ring is only acted upon by vertical stresses having the same direction of force and its resultant resiliency is comparatively weak. Further, in such wavy washers as are produced by cutting a belt-like flat coil material while the coil material is being coiled and a number of waves 3 are being formed in the inside, there is no breaking even under a strong pressure, because they are devoid of grains such as in steel punched products. Hence, by selecting suitable cutting spots, doubly or trebly coiled washers having an increased resiliency can be easily attained, and when the cut ends 5 are formed in a step style, they also possess additional repulsion action of a spring washer such as shown in FIG. 8, holding all the merits of a spring washer, toothed washer, wavy washer and fiat washer as used in the past, and now that they can be alternatively used in a wide range of uses, they are very convenient.

While I have disclosed several embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that these embodiments are given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claims.

I claim:

1. A wavy detent washer comprising a substantially annular ring having adjacent cut ends,

said annular ring having a circular outer edge portion defining substantially a single plane plate thereat,

said annular ring formed with approximately five waves at the inner edge portion running substantially continuously around the entire inner edge portion and perpendicularly to said single plane plate, and

said waves extending back and forth radially with respect to said ring as well as perpendicularly with respect to said single plane,

the height of said waves is about .5 to 2 times as large as the thickness of said plane plate and substantially smaller than the length of each wave.

2. The washer, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said cut ends are formed in steps thereby providing a spring type washer action.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Poupitch l5l35 Poupitch 15138 Beart 151-35 Chiarugi 151-35 Spatz et al. 15138 Foco 15138 Connell 151--35 Great Britain.

MARION PARSONS, JR., Primary Examiner. 

